To those who have studied Brazil’s complicated history of environmentalism, the fact that Rio de Janeiro has struggled to get its bodies of water Olympics- ready has come as no surprise. A year before the games, reports began to circulate that Guanabara Bay and several lakes hosting water sports had made athletes sick from bacterial and viral infections. More recent tests show improvement, but organizers and athletes alike remain concerned.

Gaby Benitez, Taylor Johnson, and their dog Aoife share a house near East Campus with five other students. 

THE CATALYST: The popularity of break dancing, programming vocaloid music, and playing video games creates subcultures that inform both individual identity and a larger cultural identity in East Asia. Students explore these phenomena, among others, in this course created by visiting cultural anthropology professor Dwayne Dixon A.M. ’08, Ph.D. ’14.

Kailey Johnson, Julia Donnell, and Jasmine Hill live in Brown Residence Hall.

THE CATALYST: Melody Jue believes that deep water can make a fascinating setting for science fiction and other literature. A literature Ph.D. student and scuba diver, Jue traveled to Mexico to study underwater museums for her dissertation, “Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater.” Her study of the field of “ocean humanities” will continue with this course, which she brings to the Duke Marine Lab for the first time this summer.

High in the foothills of the Himalayas, after an hourslong trek up the hillside, Lisa Philippone and her fellow researchers finally reached the village. “It was just so crazy because you’re hiking, it’s so steep, it’s pouring rain all over us, and we get to the top and this little old lady is there, and she’s cooking on her stove,” remembers Philippone, a master’s student in the Duke Global Health Institute.